For fans of Between the Buried and Me, The Black Dahlia Murder, and Opeth

I never expected Wretched’s 2010 sophmore release, Beyond the Gate, to be as good as it was. It was leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessor, The Exodus of Autonomy, and featured some of the most impressively original songwriting I had heard from an American death-metal band in a very long time. Well, the Northern Carolina metalheads have returned with their follow-up, Son of Perdition, last month, and though it may not be as huge a leap forward as Beyond the Gate was, it’s another strong offering from one of the most underrated emerging bands in death metal.

I’m not going to lie, I’m fighting off a massive hangover today. The only music existing in my media library that can supplement how shitty I feel is the debut release from San Jose natives The Conceal, entitled Endless River | Stunted Prayer, which just hit the internet like a cheap whiskey-infused dirty bomb last Monday. Since then, my ears have been giving it a lot of attention and I am enthusiastically impressed by this new act coming from the South Bay (aka that place where a bunch of bands try to sound like Dredg, Circa Survive, and anything Post-Rock).

The Conceal is a reboot of Flood Peak, headed by Mike McClatchey (ex-Clearing Autumn Skies, Apiary, Early Graves) that features a few down-tuned, slower rehashes of songs from Flood Peak’s EP Filling Flasks along with mostly new material. This being said, anyone expecting The Conceal to be anything like its former incarnation will be in for a big surprise. Endless River | Stunted Prayeris a 45 minute masterpiece of doom, sludge, feedback, and industrial influenced shit-rock that brings a refreshing sense of creativity to heavy music. There is no mimicry or trend-following here, only trendsetting.

Few games come by and leave such a lasting and powerful impression on me and even less often can I say a game moved me. I most certainly wouldn’t expect a game completely devoid of narrative, dialogue, and any co-op communication like ThatGameCompany’s newest downloadable epic, Journey, would be the one do it.

Maybe I’m a sucker for weird, artsy, abstract games (see my review for Limbo) but Journey really floored the little expectations I had for it. Like many others, I had heard the buzz that the game generated when it first came out exclusively for Playstation Plus subscribers more than a month ago. I was ready to buy the game then and there, but because of the game’s exclusivity, I wasn’t able to and almost completely forgot about it. I mean, is there still anyone that actually pays for that service? Anyway, the game was publicly released a few weeks after that, and I finally got the chance to check it out.

Anybody else see this and think of a really fucked up Magic Eye? No? Alright.

It’s hard to put into words how I feel about the new Meshuggah album, Koloss, but if I had to choose just one word to describe it, without a doubt, it’d be the word massive. From start to finish, Koloss is simply crushing, and there’s just something about the tones and grooves used on this record that will simply floor you. Koloss begs the question that many of Meshuggah’s albums have: how the HELL is Meshuggah going to top this?

So maybe it was just wishful thinking that led us to believe Playstation was about to announce God Of War 4. I was looking forward to seeing the next chapter in Kratos’ life, after the chaotic ending of the third game. But it turns out we’ll never know what happens. The teaser that Playstation put up on their Facebook page was in fact advertising a new God Of War game, but SURPRISE, it’s another prequel. Read more of this post

On Wednesday, April 11th, PlayStation mysteriously changed their Facebook cover photo to this enigmatic image. For those of you who can’t read (which is hopefully none of you, otherwise what are you doing on this site?), it says is big beautiful letters “Will Vengeance Bring Redemption? 04.19.12” Rumors have been flying left and right about what it might represent, and about 90% of said rumors are pointing to God Of War 4. Read more of this post

I’m one of those people that finds it very difficult to resist the draw of a good coming-of-age story. Something about tales of young people discovering who they are and what it’s like to be a part of the “real world” really gets to me, particularly if they’re presented with style and a unique voice. Therefore, I was very excited when I heard the rumblings of a great one making the rounds at film festivals a year or so ago. That film was “Submarine,” and it’s now available on Netflix Instant Streaming, allowing me to finally check it out for myself. If you’re wondering how much I loved this movie, read all about it after the break!

On a night of exciting season premieres (Game of Thrones, The Killing), I’ve decided to keep my focus trained on the continuing efforts of AMC’s period epic, Mad Men. Earlier tonight, we were treated to the fifth season’s sophomore episode, “Tea Leaves.” While it may not be clear exactly where this season is headed just yet, there are definite traces of the series’ characteristic slow burn. Check out my spoiler-filled thoughts and comment with your own after the break!